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Synopsis

Alexa's return to the studio shakes things up drastically and forces Ozzy and Richelle to rethink their status as a couple as Richelle struggles to cope with her newfound injury that results in only further proof of how the two were not meant to be together.

Chapter

Kate walked into studio 1 where their six dancers of B-Troupe stood in unison feeling super excited, as they had an upcoming competition to attend, and therefore, everything had to be perfect for this was a rare occurrence, a natural disaster of dance that somehow graced the audience occasionally. "Alright, we need to begin." Kate said as then she began to give the choreography for the group routine that they were to preform.

Alexa stormed in, "I heard there's a spot open on B-Troupe?" She asked, her head tilted. "Because I would love it and to be honest, I love this place." The noise almost came as acting by some, though to others, the tone in her voice made things sound eerily off, as if she did not even want to be there, as if she was in a play of some sorts.

"Yeah, there is, though you're gonna have to audition." Kate said and then Alexa smiled.

"Oh, I'll audition. I'll give you the best performance of your life." Alexa said joyfully and then Inside Out began to play she did a beautiful contemporary piece, and then Retwist turned on and she did an amazing hip hop routine. Kate was both shocked, surprised and amused at how the girl could do two completely different styles, for internationals, they needed her on the team.

Unfortunately, she had to leave last time she had joined due to the uproar that sunk in from her sister, who hated how her sister was on the team with her at the time, her parents forced her to leave because Jacquie had more to stay for - a boyfriend, a best friend, though now, none of those mattered at all. Noah who? She had no one to turn to fore she'd lost her best friend to Ozzy's stupid campaign. This could no longer happen under any circumstances.

"And I can do much more then that, Acro, jazz, tap, ballet. You name it." The girl seemed to be the real deal.

"You're on A-Troupe, anyway, I have brought in Noah here-" Noah walked in, feeling a sense of pride that he could do something and not have to worry over being hated on, like the campaign, as he had just lost his girlfriend the day before and needed some hope in his life. The feeling of dread mixed with sorrow was not good enough for him, he needed to move on; he needed that green light.

Alexa turned to Noah. "You know Ozzy, right?" Alexa asked.

"Yeah, he's my best bro, I mean I'm not exactly on good terms with him right now, though I could maybe try to talk to him..." Noah said.

"I've seen him around in my school, and I want him to know that I think he's cute." Noah had heard of the whole Richelle-Ally rumours floating around of how Ozzy could not decide on who to date, and this would only make things complicated further, though he did not care. Ozzy needed his comeuppance for being the cause of his and the best thing that had ever happened to him's dispersing of the two parties. This would be surefire payback. Revenge to execute internally; Ozzy sucked at telling someone no, so this would be the best thing yet.

The weapon of choice was Alexa, the war was for revenge, and who, at this point, knew the sides?

After class, Noah lead Alexa down to Shakes And Ladders. "Ozzy - this is Alexa. She's a new dancer on B-Troupe and she admits to have seen you in the hallways at school and thinks you're cute." Noah restated, a playful grin on Ozzy's face. Then, Noah walked off, leaving them to talk to one another.

-

Richelle sighed as she fiddled with her blue pointe shoes in the locker room. She frowned at what was going on to her, she was injured, again, and had no way to tell if something was serious or not, though feared to go to a professional on the matter. What was she to do?

Ozzy walked in and sat down next to her. "So hey.... What's going on?" They'd yet to have a full talk since Richelle had marked it in the battle against the TNS faculty and the dancers, "you looked pretty.... Hurt at the competition?"

"Why would you wanna know?" Richelle asked, a hint of bitterness and anguish was salted on.

"Because," Ozzy looked his girlfriend in the eye and held her hand. "I am your boyfriend, anything serious, I should know about. And besides, you marked it in the battle, and I wanna know if something's up. You'd tell me if something's up, right?-"

Richelle cracked, and began to yell. "I'm injured okay?! Now leave me alone! I am injured again and have no one to turn to, I need to dance and won't let anyone stop me so you're not gonna stop me!" Richelle yelled, shoving Ozzy out.

It was official - Richelle had hit rock bottom, though, the worst was the yet to come.

-

Ozzy had gotten to the locker room, showing Jacquie's sister around the entire building. He'd shown everything but that locker area. "And here is the locker room, doesn't it look nice?" Ozzy asked, sitting on the bench, trying to forget about the drama that had happened with Richelle the hour earlier.

"Yeah." Alexa said, sitting next to him, she noticed that Ozzy had zoned out. "Ozzy? You there?" She asked, tapping on his head.

As soon as the tapping and entered his system, he shot up. "What did I miss?"

A sea of laughter endorsed by Jacquie's sister's vocal cords ensued. "You're too funny Ozzy." She admitted under the laughter, the words being drowned by the waves.

"Yeah, I have that effect on people." Ozzy said.

Alexa's face dipped. "Are you okay? You seem down.."

"No, well I am, but my girlfriend Richelle kinda yelled at me and now I don't know where we stand, I want to believe she's good but at this point she's hurt me way too many times and I don't think I can be with her..." Ozzy admitted.

"Well, don't worry...You'll find something out." Alexa said,

Meanwhile, Richelle was pacing with Lily in the hallway. Lily had somehow manage to forgive her despite them being on opposite ends, though they mostly did this to give the team a sense of unity, so that there was someone connecting the two sides together, as the studio still felt like two studio's instead of what it actually was - one.

"You'll be fine." Lily said. "Tou just messed up once."

"You were not there, I literally yelled that he was not going to stop me. He deserves an apology." Richelle said, going to sit on the bench.

Lily mocked her, "then just apologize."

"I don't know, I can't. I just can't. There's something stopping me." Richelle said, looking down with a frown and then it dawned on her, she glared up at Lily. "What if he does not accept my apology?" She asked, concerned for the future of their relationship. "I could have just messed everything up big time, I'm so dead." Richelle said.

"Calm down, I know he's in the locker room. Just go, because then you'd have done something, unlike sitting here, wasting time. Saying sorry usually means you are sorry, and are you?" Lily asked.

Richelle grunted. "Fine." Richelle said and then gathered up the words of her sentence she was about to speak and sighed, getting ready. This was a nerve-wracking thing. Saying sorry showed a sign of weakness, meaning she'd admit the defeat that held her scared, but that would be defeating the defeat as well. It could mean that she could get better, admit her demons and finally face them, head on.

To her horror, things did not go exactly how they were planned to be, when she walked into the premise of where the two were, for the guy and girl the guy was showing around were in her line of sight - she knew that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Alexa was kissing Ozzy, and Ozzy looked to be kissing back..

-

Richelle sighed as she looked over at the sad Ozzy. The two had not yet, still, had the talk of the future for their relationship. Where did they stand? Neither person knew, and quite frankly, neither wanted to know. They both loved each other, but that made them grow apart. They were too vile, Richelle's love for dance pushed him away, Ozzy's redeeming qualities of how he was funny often led to other people loving him, too. Wanting to be his, and Ozzy knew he'd feel bad. The two just were not made for each other.

"I'm sorry... I.... attacked you like that," Richelle sighed as she walked over to Ozzy and sat across from him in the same slanted positon, sulking into both the chair and table.

"It's fine, I'm sorry I cheated on you." Ozzy said.

"But how could you?"

"I thought we were on a break, especially when you tried to almost kill me."

"I never tried to almost kill you!" Richelle yelled but then refrained from the dangerous form. "Look, I'm sorry. I'm just going through so much right now. You have no idea how much I love you, but dance is all I have that lasts. Love will die out, eventually. And I am so scared that I could lose it. My parents - they got... Divorced, three years ago, so about when I'd first joined The Next Step, my dad paid for dance but now he won't, and my mom is having a hard time getting the bills in. I really need some support and dance is all I have that will last forever, how do I know love will last forever?"

"Because it will, you love them." Ozzy said.

"No, you don't get it, do you? People sometimes just loose interest in others, they stop caring, stop loving. I don't want that to be me so I hide all of myself. I let everything leave my body and float in my brain because I can't open up to anyone for fear of loosing someone I might care about then, and now look what happened? We just aren't made for each other.. our defining qualities won't work well together, so even if I love you, Ozzy, we can never be." Richelle sighed, she'd just broken up with Ozzy and then walked off.

Ozzy frowned - this was exactly what he had feared.

Richelle stormed into studio A, and put her bag down on the bench and turned to the centre of the dance floor, she went there, exactly in the middle and turned on New Rules, right now, she just needed some time to think about her actions. This was what happened every time she fell for someone, she'd be hurt. Devastated. She'd push them out every time, and as she danced, the other love interest of Ozzy who had made herself prevent before the cheating, before Alexa, Ally, walked by and noticed Ozzy looking awfully glum

"You okay?" Ally asked.

"No, I think Richelle just broke up with me." He admitted, a frown consuming him as he was unsure of his plan on attack. He could not just let this be, he had to fight for her, but there was this other person, who he knew he'd always had feelings for and standing right by him. He could not just leave this opportunity for a happy life behind, right? There was no way.

"Would you like to... Go on a date?" Ozzy asked.

"No, I'm sorry, I have to go, my dad's waiting." Ally said, though, she was actually lying. It was just something to make Ozzy laugh. She began to slowly walk off sadly and then right when she'd stepped out of the door and the building, she rushed back in to her seat to make sure it had yet to be taken.

"You're the worst." Ozzy said as they'd shared a laughter. It felt like they'd finally found those that were good for them, though deep inside, Ozzy was still wondering on how to combat Richelle's newfound injury, she could not risk further injury as she'd literally just gotten off the one, so this could be potentially very dangerous if she'd decide to dance once more. He felt like things would be horrible. He had to stop things before things got serious.

Yet, this could be potentially his fault, because of how he'd allowed Richelle to dance with the knowledge of her previous injury. But did he know? - no, not at all, but he still allowed her to dance with , and this was his girlfriend at the time that they were talking about, this should have been his number one priority to keep safe. He felt very guilty the more he'd thought about it.

Richelle finally admitted defeat, finally fessed up, and now, it was time to be serious and get some help...

Authors Notes

The song that Richelle dances to in the end, "New Rules" by Dua Lipa is actually the song in which chapter three is named after.

For those who wanna know and are confused - Richelle has finally admitted that she needs professional help with her mental issues. Now, if she's going to go to anywhere or not is something up for debate, but just to say, she will have a recovery process that will probably last the entirety of the book.

I am going to take my time with the next chapter because after that I have no clue where to go with the storyline because I've already planned chapter fifteen and so I'd need something that could only last like three chapters and effect stuff later on in the book, but not something too drastic.

Richelle is injured again, and by again I mean she was also found out to be injured in the season five episode of The Next Step, I Have a Vision.

The backstory behind Richelle and her story honestly is a work of pure fiction, though I found it the intriguing idea to explore and be the cause of Richelle's trust issues. I thought it was going to be great and look how it turned out? The best it could ever be!

This is the first of a two parter entitled "That's The Game", and I'm excited to write the next chapter, though it might not come for like... until New Years cuz I will try to stall as I am posting two chapters on New Years and I have no clue how to carry on with the plot.

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